After a 0-0 draw against Manchester City, Manchester United will be looking to get back to winning ways with a win against Aston Villa this lunchtime. United have the opportunity to cut Chelsea’s lead at the top down to one point, they play Sunderland at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Arsenal are also in action on Sunday, they visit Goodison Park to play Everton.

Man United have been poor away from home this season with four out of five away Premier League games finishing in a draw. Their first win away from home came at the Britannia Stadium with a 2-1 win over Stoke on the 24th October.

Aston Villa are currently sat 10th in the table, level on points with Bolton, Tottenham, Sunderland, Liverpool and West Brom. Villa have played six home Premier League games this season, winning three and drawing three.

Paul Scholes is serving a one-match suspension, Darron Gibson and Anderson are doubtful with a virus. Patrice Evra picked up an ankle injury during the Manchester derby, he is also doubtful along with Ryan Giggs, who is trying to recover from a hamstring strain. Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Owen Hargreaves and Rafael da Silva are all out injured.

The home side have their own injury problems with a possibility of ten players missing. They will be without John Carew, Fabian Delph, Emile Heskey, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell and Andreas Weimann. Steven Ireland, Carlos Cuellar, Habib Beye and Gabriel Agbonlahor are all rated as doubtful.

Mike Dean will be refereeing the game at Aston Villa. So far this season he has officiated two games involving both teams. He took charge of Man United’s 5-2 win over Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup and Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw with Bolton in the league. This season he has refereed 12 games in all competitions (including International games), shown 39 yellow cards and three reds.